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Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

LANSING — The ride is bumpy in the rural area of western Michigan where Norman Knorr lives, and the retired accountant says he’d be willing to pay a 7% sales tax if he knew the extra money raised would be dedicated to road repairs.

“We need to fix them if we’re going to support business growth,” said Knorr, 75, who lives in Fremont in Newaygo County and worked for Gerber Baby Food before he retired.

A poll released Tuesday says that like Knorr, most of Michigan voters would favor an increase of one percentage point in the state sales tax — from 6% to 7% — to fix and maintain the state’s roads and bridges.

Of those polled, 57% said they would favor a 7% sales tax if money from the increase went to roads; 42% were opposed, while the rest didn’t know or wouldn’t say.

The poll by EPIC-MRA of Lansing found that voters are mostly split on how to raise the more than $1 billion a year in road money Gov. Rick Snyder requested. More voters support raising it through spending cuts than through hikes to taxes or fees, the poll suggests.

According to the poll, a sales tax hike is more acceptable to voters than a hike to the fuel tax or vehicle registration fees, but it is controversial because unlike the other charges, residents who don’t drive will be forced to pay it.

“It’s regressive,” said Mel Kozek, a retired teacher and middle school principal in Rochester Hills. “If there’s a retired grandmother who doesn’t have a car, why should she be paying?”

Knorr said he would prefer a user-pay system, but is willing to back a sales tax hike if that’s the only road funding mechanism that will fly.

The live-operator telephone poll of 600 likely voters, conducted May 11-15, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. It included 20% cell phone participation. Of those polled, 39% identified themselves as Democrats, 36% as Republicans and 25% as Independents.

Several proposals under consideration in Lansing would use a one percentage point hike in the state sales tax either to go directly to roads or to replace School Aid Fund money redirected to roads. Such plans would require voter approval.

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A one percentage point hike in the sales tax would raise slightly more than $1 billion a year, state officials said.

A road and bridge funding plan has been mostly stalled in the Legislature, though Snyder and GOP legislative leaders agreed Tuesday to target $350 million in unanticipated revenues toward one-time road fixes in the 2014 budget while they continue to work on a longer-term plan.

“I think the public is ahead of the Legislature” and willing to raise the money either through an increased sales tax or by taking back some of the business tax cuts approved in 2011, EPIC-MRA President Bernie Porn told the Free Press.

Taking back half of the $1.8 billion business tax cut enacted in 2011 through the elimination of the Michigan Business Tax and directing that $900 million a year to roads was supported by 51% of those polled and opposed by 34%.

Voters are strongly opposed — 72% to only 21% in favor — to the early proposal Snyder floated about raising the money through steep increases to gasoline taxes and vehicle registration fees.

Asked generally how to raise more than $1 billion a year for roads, 33% favored doing it mostly or only through spending cuts; 21% favored using mostly or only tax or fee increases, and 22% were undecided or didn’t say. The largest single group — 24% — said they favored raising the money through a balanced approach of cutting spending and raising taxes or fees equally.

The Michigan Department of Transportation says it has made significant spending cuts in recent years and now needs new revenues.

“We’re pleased that the public understands the need to shore up the state’s vital infrastructure and (is) willing to think about new funding methods,” said spokesman Jeff Cranson.

A $25 per-vehicle hike in registration fees was supported by 46% and opposed by 52%, the poll found.

Increasing fuel taxes by 6 cents per gallon for unleaded gasoline and 10 cents per gallon for diesel — so the taxes on the two types of fuel would be equalized — was supported by 33% and opposed by 64%.

The registration fees and fuel tax hikes proposed in the poll are lower than those Snyder proposed in his February budget.

A 10% hike in registration fees for heavy trucks was favored by 72% and opposed by 20%. It was not immediately clear how much money such an increase would generate.

Snyder, Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, and House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, agreed to targets Tuesday for how to spend more than half a billion dollars in unanticipated revenue as they finalize the 2013-14 budget.

The GOP leaders set targets of adding $350 million in spending on roads, $140 million on K-12 education and $75 million into Michigan’s Budget Stabilization Fund, also known as the Rainy Day Fund, said Ari Adler, a spokesman for Bolger. They also agreed to an additional $16 million in revenue sharing for local governments, he said.